The Better Man
The Better Man is an episode of the series The Venture Bros. Plot This episode begins with the Order of the Triad attempting to stop the villain Torrid from opening a gate to Hell. Torrid accidentally releases a demon from another world which quickly disposes of him. The Triad, despite their fears, attack the demon but are no match for it. Jefferson Twilight is killed and just as Al and Dr. Orpheus think they've lost, a mysterious stranger riding a flaming black horse flies through the gate. The stranger easily defeats the demon and brings Jefferson Twilight back to life. As he flies back through the portal Dr. Orpheus reveals that the man who saved them was non-other than the OutRider, his former student and the man who stole his wife. In the next scene Hank asks Dean why he is putting on his nice dress clothes. Dean wants to look nice for Triana Orpheus but Hank tells him that they aren't dating so he should give up trying to win her heart. Hank convinces Dean to go meet girls at a Mall. Meanwhile Jefferson Twilight, in an attempt to make up for being defeated, trains with cardboard monsters. In the front yard of the Venture Compound Dr. Orpheus attempts to open a portal to Hell with camping equipment. After failing, Orpheus enters his daughter's closet to seek advise from the Master who appears in the form of his very sexy ex-wife. The Master encourages Orpheus to kill the OutRider. The Triad go back to the portal to find OutRider chasing Torrid who, after witnessing hell, begs for OutRider to put him out of his misery. As OutRider is about to mercifully kill Torrid, Torrid pounces on him and makes incantations that send OutRider's soul to hell. Orpheus, seeing that OutRider is noble, decides he is good and that he wants to save his soul from hell. The Triad enlist Master Billy Quizboy to perform brain surgery on the OutRider to bring him back, and Orpheus and the Alchemist enter hell to find out that they cannot return without the help of someone in both worlds. Jefferson Twilight is in both worlds and is able to help them escape hell, as it turns out he has some magical abilities after all. Meanwhile, Triana stumbles into her closet and meets the Master, appearing as an older, neurotic, balding Dean Venture as her potential future husband. He convinces her to break things off with Dean and to go live with her mother and train to become a sorceress. Bolstered by the Master's support and realizing that she has the talent to become a sorceress, Triana goes to speak to her father about going to go live with her mother. After the credits the Order and the Venture family are bidding Triana farewell as she's about to leave with the Outrider. Dean approaches Triana saying they need to talk and tries to break off their relationship. Triana happily agrees and kisses Dean who tries to say that they should try a long distance relationship, but Triana says that she couldn't possibly 'keep you to myself' sparing Dean's feelings while hopefully breaking him of his crush on her. Connection to other episodes *Triana's mother and Orpheus' ex-wife, Tatiana, is shown for the first time, as taken to form by Orpheus' Master. She is first mentioned in the episode "Fallen Arches" when Orpheus is justifying his foray back into costumed adventuring. *Triana's suspicion of her father and his group being in her room is the effect of Orpheus' use of his magic to wipe her memory of the fact her closet is a portal to the Necropolis, as per Escape to the House of Mummies Part II. *It is revealed Orpheus' marriage broke up most likely due to the fact he was a workaholic with his Necromancing. In the aforementioned episode, Orpheus insisted to his Master that his wife left because of the persistence of OutRider, which is only half of the truth. *Hank and Dean revisit the shopping mall from "Hate Floats", where Dr Venture was beaten and kidnapped by the Monarch's henchmen. *Triana learns of Hank and Dean's cloning, as first revealed in the episode "Powerless in the Face of Death". *Hank has taken up the habit of being a compulsive liar from Dermott. Cultural references *The demon realeased from hell resembles Cthulhu, a cosmic entity created by the horror author H.P. Lovecraft in 1926. *One of the cardboard cut-outs on Jefferson Twilight's training course is that of Matthew Lesko. *The OutRider is an obvious parody of Ghost Rider, Solomon Kane and Zorro. *Just as Dr. Orpheus is modeled after Marvel Comics superhero Dr. Strange, Orpheus' foe Torrid is modeled after Dr. Strange's enemy Dormammu. *When Hank takes Dean to the mall to meet girls, he encourages the latter by quoting "take a bite outta crime," the catchphrase of Scruff McGruff. *Dean, on "mussing up" his hair at Hank's request, comments that he looks like Rufio, the de facto leader of the Lost Boys from the film "Hook" *When OutRider starts falling apart in hell The Alchemist refers to him as Brundlefly, a character in the movie The Fly. *When the OutRider's ear falls off, The Alchemist refers to this as "dino-damage," a reference to the Jurassic Park toy line by Kenner. Certain dinosaur toys featured "dino-damage": removable skin and flesh, simulating wounds. *When visiting the mall to meet girls, the methods used by Hank are similar to The Mystery Method developed by Erik von Markovik. *The Alchemist says that he used to visit the London Gothic rock nightclub Batcave while musician Nick Fiend was still the doorman there. Goofs *During the telethon commercials for Venture Bros. Items on the Adult Swim Website, the man states for them to get back to the show and to see Brock Samson. Though Brock Samson hasn't been seen since the begining of this season, save for a small cameo in the episode Perchance to Dean. *Dean changes into his three-piece suit before going to see Triane, but while in the yard, he is wearing his speedsuit, and after the scene in the yard he is again wearing his three-piece suit. Production Notes Category:The Venture Bros. episodes